Hollow Pike (6 page)

She dared to open an eye. The long shadows of trees reached towards her door, but nothing moved. There’s a reason films always portray branches as skeleton fingers, because that’s
exactly what they look like in the silent early hours. The shadow hadn’t been merely trees, though, Lis was certain; it had been too quick. Someone had darted across the terrace. Only now
doubt set in. What if she’d dreamed it? It wouldn’t be the first dream she’d had that felt real.

Looking at her phone, the display read 12.54. Still the witching hour. Her head throbbed slightly as she recalled Harry and Laura’s tall tales of Hollow Pike witches. It was funny, thought
Lis, how everything seemed possible in the middle of the night. The fairy tales had been almost laughable at school. They weren’t so funny any more.

She wouldn’t sleep with those curtains hanging open. Lis forced herself over to the doors and looked out onto the terrace beyond, her heart refusing to beat steadily. The garden was
silent, still and serene. What was wrong with her? Had she had too much Red Bull or something? Had it been the wine? She was so jumpy.

There was a sudden flurry of movement and Lis staggered back. Grasping the sturdy rim of her bed she saw it was just a bird. Another bloody bird. This one was huge, sleek and black all over, as
if it were made from velvet. A crow or a raven – were they the same thing? She wasn’t sure. It perched on the back of a terrace chair and watched her intently as she approached the
window. Like the magpie, it was brazen, unfazed by her presence.

She’d never seen a crow this close up before. It was oddly beautiful, the curve of its beak elegant somehow. For a moment they sized each other up, the bird tilting its head quizzically.
Perhaps the raven landing had caused the shadow to flash across the terrace. That
had
to be it. Lis was both vindicated – she hadn’t imagined it, after all – and
reassured.

Pulling the curtains over the windows, she returned to her bed, but she walked backwards, not taking her eyes from the doors. Just in case.

Party Hard

After a few weeks of struggling with surprisingly difficult maths, ploughing through a mountain of homework and surviving Laura’s further transparent attempts to set her
up with Cameron, Lis was starting to settle into her new home. Unfamiliar things were becoming routine. She could feel her nerves unclenching. Perhaps the move had been a bigger deal than
she’d anticipated; no wonder she’d been so twitchy.

Since the ponytail incident, Laura had been, dare she say it,
nice.

The weekend of the party – her first big party in Hollow Pike – came quickly. And it was at Danny’s.

Her iPod played a selection of poppy dance tunes at full volume, but Lis was failing to get into the party mood. She knew Laura would have told Cameron he stood a chance despite her warnings to
the contrary, and while his blatant attempts had their own special charm, the joke was starting to wear thin. Plus, every time Laura found an excuse to touch Danny – picking a bit of grass
out of his hair, or brushing an imaginary eyelash off his cheek – Lis had to fight the urge to scream. The last time she’d had such a serious crush she’d been thirteen and fallen
hopelessly in love with her ballet teacher who, on reflection, was probably gay.

Do I even want a boyfriend?
Lis asked herself. She was starting to wonder if she was some sort of medical oddity. All fifteen-year-old girls are supposed to want a boyfriend, and Lis
had
dated boys in Bangor, but only because they’d asked and it was the done thing. But Danny . . . Danny was something new, something special, and she had literally no idea how she
could take it any further. With Laura hanging off him like a leech it all seemed so pointless.

She checked her reflection in the mirror. Getting ready was much easier with Sarah as style advisor. The other It Girls had taken a trip into Leeds to buy new dresses, but Lis had a wardrobe
full of brand new Wales outfits to début in Yorkshire. Her new, sophisticated clothes were supposed to be mature, although she now worried the clothes were too grown-up: mumsy and dull.
Tonight she’d been careful to select a demure look that would send a clear message to Cameron: plain, black skinny jeans with a simple grey vest and a pretty lace cardigan over the top. She
tamed her brown waves into a chic knot and enlisted Sarah to help with make-up. It was a low impact disguise that Lis hoped would help her fly under the radar through this potentially tricky social
situation.

She knew how important the party was – if she did something wrong at this event, it would haunt her for the rest of the year (or until someone else did something even more embarrassing).
The night was bound to be full of pitfalls. There would almost certainly be alcohol. Should she drink any? If she did, how much should she drink? She hoped there wouldn’t be any drugs doing
the rounds. What if it was the norm to get involved? She’d managed to stay well clear of drugs at parties in Bangor, but she knew the day would come when she’d have to make a choice and
stay resolute.

And then there were boys . . . where to start?

She sighed as Sarah shouted up the stairs, ‘Lis, your lift is here!’

With a final glance in the mirror, Lis sighed again. She was going to a party. Why did it feel like she was going into battle?

Harry’s mum pulled up outside a large detached property on a brand-new housing estate, one of those where all the houses are identical and look a lot grander than they
actually are.

‘Right, you girls, behave,’ she warned. ‘Harry, I mean it . . . If you are sick, I will rub your face in it!’

Lis, Laura and Nasima lurched out of the back seat in a slightly undignified tangle of high heels and legs. Lis looked grossly under-dressed next to her glamorous companions, which was fine by
her.

‘I’ll be back at midnight on the dot. Have fun,’ Harry’s mum said as Harry climbed out of the passenger seat and smoothed her tiny dress.

‘I hope we’re not early. You’re dead if we’re the first here, Harry.’ Laura shot her friend a deadly look.

‘Sorry, my mum wanted to be back in time for
X Factor
!’

‘Sod it, let’s get messy!’ Laura led the posse towards the house.

They needn’t have worried. It seemed that Danny’s male friends had been there for some time – as evidenced by at least a dozen half-eaten takeaway pizzas lying around. The
party was in the embryonic stage, but was nonetheless under way.

A group of boys Lis didn’t know had set up camp in the lounge and were immersed in a football game on some sort of console, cheering loudly and rocking frantically, controllers in hand.
Conflicting sources of loud music filled the house.

‘Where’s Danny?’ yelled Nasima over the din.

‘I dunno, but let’s find him . . .’ Laura stepped over a pile of spilled nachos and headed for the kitchen.

As they marched through the soirée, Lis popped her head round a door and found that the garage had been converted into a games room. Cameron and several others were gathered around a pool
table. She quickly withdrew and followed the girls.

They pushed past some guy making an obvious move on a pretty Year Ten girl to find Fiona and her boyfriend, Lee, groping each other at a makeshift drinks station.

‘Are you finished?’ Laura loudly interrupted.

Fiona pulled away, lips red and make-up smudged. ‘Hi babes! Y’alright?’

‘Yeah, cool.’ Laura was single-minded. ‘Where’s Danny?’

Fiona looked across the kitchen. ‘He was here a second ago . . .’

Laura started to turn, but was rugby tackled by Cam, who bounded into the kitchen, almost knocking Lis and Harry to the floor. He swept Laura up in a massive bear hug, spinning her around.

‘Riggsy!’

Laura pushed him away, yanking her dress down where it had ridden up. ‘Jesus, did you forget your Ritalin? Get off!’

Cameron raised his hands. ‘Sorry, Riggsy. Can’t keep my hands off you!’

‘Well, try harder or I’ll get someone to break them,’ she snarled.

‘Christ, Riggsy, love, is it that time of the month?’

Laura picked up a bottle and for a moment Lis thought she might actually hit him with it but, luckily for Cam, Danny stormed in through the back door, surly and stressed. Laura calmed herself
and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which Lis was secretly thrilled to see Danny pull away from awkwardly.

‘Ste, mate, if you have to smoke . . . garden, yeah?’ he appealed to one of Cam’s mates.

‘Sorry, dude.’

Lis pulled herself onto the kitchen counter. ‘You OK, Danny?’

‘Hi, Lis. Yeah. Well, bit stressed. My dad gave a big speech about trust. If the house burns down . . .’

‘The next party will be your wake?’

‘Something like that,’ Danny replied with a grin.

‘Well then, stress-head, let’s get you a drink,’ Laura interjected, suddenly bright and airy. She produced a hipflask-shaped bottle of vodka from her handbag. ‘Want
some?’

Nasima followed suit, pulling an illicit bottle of rum from her own bag.

Danny waved a bottle of beer in Laura’s direction. ‘I’m all set, thanks, Riggsy.’

‘Oi!’ Cam punched Danny’s toned arm. ‘I’m the only one who’s allowed to call her Riggsy. Isn’t that right?’

‘He can call me anything he wants. And, Cameron, it’s nothing to do with you. Go away. Shoo!’

Lis was caught off guard by the tension between Laura and Cam. It was like someone had turned over two pages at once. Harry usually kept Lis well informed of all recent gossip, but she was
missing something.

‘Lis, what do you want to drink?’ Nasima said, handing out plastic cups.

Lis thought for a moment. ‘Vodka and Coke, please.’

‘Good girl!’ said Cameron. ‘Get a drink down yer neck!’

Lis had used this strategy many times. She’d have her vodka and Coke and then refill with just Coke. If anyone asked, she’d tell them it was vodka and Coke; they were hardly likely
to taste her drink, were they? She didn’t like being drunk: the creeping dreaminess blurring her edges, losing control. It was too much like her nightmares.

With a loud bang, the front door swung open and half of Year Eleven seemed to spill into the hallway.

Danny took a huge step backwards, turning a sickly grey colour. ‘I. Am. So. Dead.’ He trailed after the crowd, trying to steer them into the garden, much to Laura’s obvious
dismay. Inside, Lis was glowing. The contest for Danny Marriott hadn’t been won yet.

The next hour and a half flew by. Lis was shocked to discover Cam wasn’t as horrendous as she’d previously thought. In fact, he kept Harry and Lis very well
entertained in the kitchen, making gross cocktails and daring his friends to try them. To Lis’s relief, it was becoming clear that Cameron had no sexual interest in her whatsoever.

Much to her continuing amusement, the more Danny ignored Laura, the more unpleasant she became: sulky, bitchy and sarcastic. She’d followed him around for most of the party with no pay-off
until, eventually, she and Nasima headed upstairs for crisis talks in the bathroom. But that had been ages ago. Where were they now?

Lis excused herself and slid off the kitchen counter. She half needed the loo and half wondered where everyone had gone. The party was in full swing now: every hallway and room was crammed with
dancing, drinking, snogging teenagers. Lis squeezed past a couple she knew from Physics who were engaged in a highly inappropriate embrace in the hallway, while a girl from her English class was
hurling chunks into the downstairs loo. She circumnavigated the girl’s feet and headed for the stairs.

Looking into the lounge, she was surprised to see Delilah, Jack and Kitty sitting around a coffee table, talking amongst themselves. She wouldn’t have thought they’d be remotely keen
to attend Danny’s party, but there they were in all their freaky glory. The group was even more striking out of uniform. Kitty was wearing some sort of Japanese school girl ensemble, while
Delilah was wearing a tiny, sequinned gold dress that looked like it had come straight out of the seventies. Jack, by contrast, was wearing a very plain grey sweater and jeans, similar to
Lis’s own party camouflage.

Of course, no one else was anywhere near them.